Between 2007 and 2010, at least 1,730 people died in India while, or after, participating in such trials. Many of those people, often only eligible for the studies because they were ill, might have died anyway. Yet when there are complications, even those resulting in deaths, there is often a failure properly to investigate.
.../...
Earlier this year India's Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, told parliament that a total of 10 foreign drug companies had made payments to the relatives of 22 individuals who had died during or following trials in 2010. The payments came to an average of just 238,000 rupees, or £3,000, for each individual. "Indians are being used by companies to make money selling expensive medicines in the West," claimed Dr Gulhati. "[They are] using illiterate and poor Indians who will never be able to afford these kinds of medicines."
The companies who made the compensation payments were: Pfizer, PPD, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Quintiles, Merck KGaA, Sanofi-Aventis and Wyeth, which is now part of Pfizer. When contacted, most of the companies declined to provide details of the compensation, other than to say the figure had been agreed in conjunction with a supposedly independent ethics committee and the Drug Controller General of India. (Más)
Ver también:
Entradas
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario